Will May instruct him to prioritise the northern HS3 instead of the London orientated HS2?
Grayling's first job should be stripping Southern and Southeastern of their rail franchises.
Are you sure that's the end-game the government want?
Why not just nationalise all commuter rail to TfL with Sadiq ultimately responsible as mayor? Has worked very well where done so far (WAGN, Romford line etc). Makes no sense fragmenting a commuter network. Clear lines of responsibility etc etc.
Er, we had something of that kind with BR: Inter-City Network South-East All other provincial lines.
If I use a train, I'm paying my fare to a nationalised railway. Deutsche Bahn owns Arriva Trains Wales and at least one other franchise.
By returning expired franchises to an integrated government-owned body, the system could slowly be reunified and any profits could go to the Treasury, not the German govt.(!)
Deutsche Bahn also own Great Central, Chiltern and I believe Northern Rail....
By contrast, GoVia have a HUGE empire covering London Midland, Southern, Southeastern, Gatwick Express, Great Northern and Thameslink
Alliance Rail Holdings Arriva TrainCare (formerly LNWR) Arriva Trains Wales Chiltern Railways CrossCountry Grand Central London Overground Rail Operations (50/50 joint venture with MTR Corporation) Northern Tyne & Wear Metro Arriva Rail London take full control of London Overground operations from November 2016.[4]
Ooops, didn't know they were so big. And didn't know they were getting London Overground either.
Keolis (SNCF) own 35% of Govia. And run the DLR. Abellio (NS) run Scotrail, Greater Anglia, plus 50% of Merseyrail
So the majority of "privatised" rail operations are wholly or partially nationalised by foreign governments. Its absurd that we let the German government run our trains but ban our own government. Because governments are inefficient apparently.
Mr. Borough, that does have a downside for the PLP, though. Corbyn, if he wins by a reduced margin, can legitimately suggest it would've been a stonking win but for the cut-off.
This is pre-Brexit thinking. There's going to be less economic activity, fewer people, less money. You just don't need as much infrastructure as you would have.
That said, how are people in Britain getting their internet of they don't have fibre? It's not still going over1890s-standard copper wire is it?
Yes it is! Fibre broadband infrastructure is mainly rolled out by private monopoly BT Openreach. In practice it means things like this - my estate was built from 2005 and is 700 mainly middle-class style homes. Openreach did their Broadband survey in 2004. According to them - and I asked them - we don't exist on their map which is why they won't upgrade our cabinet despite having done the ones on either side.
Supposedly private industry removes idiotic state monolith thinking. With BT it got worse. But despite the huge economic benefits of superfast - people can work from home more and travel less - its getting rolled out at snails pace.
My entire town is still waiting for fibre. And it's only 60 miles outside London, hardly a remote corner of England.
I live in a house built in 2013 in a major city. We get 1.5 to 5 meg through BT. The developers didn't bother working with any other providers to enable cable services, so we are stuck with BT. BT won't upgrade the cabinets. I live 1.5 miles from the city centre.
I live miles outside London, in a run down house from the 1850s. My broadband works fine
Stourhead ?
NW8...
[Stourhead's Palladian not Victorian, you philistine!]
Will it be yours though, or are you a "younger" brother or some such ?
We split the house and the shop a few centuries ago - the house went down the junior line: there was a chance to reclaim it after the Great War, but we had an attack of the vapours and let the National Trust get their grubby mitts on it
Mr. Borough, that does have a downside for the PLP, though. Corbyn, if he wins by a reduced margin, can legitimately suggest it would've been a stonking win but for the cut-off.
It doesn't matter. Either he wins, or he doesn't. The margin is immaterial. If he wins, he'll be challenged again. And again. And again.
So where on earth is IDS going? Since he was reported to be going into Downing Street earlier on today?
Perhaps he was offered a job but declined? Or... IDS = DPM just to troll the whole of PB
DPM is a total non-job. The only thing is that IDS in PMQs would be car-crash TV.
@Sunil_Prasannan Brady reminds me of Nicky Morgan for some reason.
But she doesn't have Nicky Morgan Eyes
And she'll tease you She'll unease you All the better just to please you She's precocious, and she knows just What it takes to make a pro blush She got Greta Garbo's standoff sighs She's got Nicky Morgan eyes
The comments today by the German and French foreign ministers shows they're seriously frit about the EU breaking up.
Are the Cabinet appointments producing this reaction, or is it just other knock-on effects of the Brexit vote here?
(edited to add, good afternoon, everyone)
Good afternoon Anne.
It's the same for all of us. What was a theoretical possibility is now an accomplished fact.
Despite the fact that EU27 polls are showing a swing towards the EU, the UK has essentially parked its economic tanks on the EU's lawn. If we do very poorly then crisis averted. If we do well...it's a genuine issue for them in the medium term in terms of unity and cohesion. Hence the slightly schizophrenic mood music.
Are the tour de France going to stitch up team sky?
Doubt it, in any case Froome would likely be back in yellow tomorrow after the time trial. They would surely be open to legal challenges, given that it was their own lack if crowd control.
The comments today by the German and French foreign ministers shows they're seriously frit about the EU breaking up.
Are the Cabinet appointments producing this reaction, or is it just other knock-on effects of the Brexit vote here?
(edited to add, good afternoon, everyone)
Good afternoon Anne.
It's the same for all of us. What was a theoretical possibility is now an accomplished fact.
Despite the fact that EU27 polls are showing a swing towards the EU, the UK has essentially parked its economic tanks on the EU's lawn. If we do very poorly then crisis averted. If we do well...it's a genuine issue for them in the medium term in terms of unity and cohesion. Hence the slightly schizophrenic mood music.
Not all, Wilders still leads in the Netherlands and 5☆ in Italy and Le Pen round 1 in France against all bar Juppe
Justine Greening is a good choice for Ed Sec I think.
And if I'm really going to indulge in fantasy, the plan could be to overpromote Rudd (frankly making the tea would be an overpromotion, but there you go) and give her the boot at the first policy slip up. Which won't be long. She has essentially been made Minister for getting immigration down.
Interesting observation from James Forsyth: This reshuffle has institutionally weakened both the Foreign Office and the Treasury
Just had a thought: Theresa May is the first PM who both represents a change of direction and is well-prepared to hit the ground running since Thatcher. She could be quite transformative even before you consider the implementation of Brexit.
Mr. Borough, that does have a downside for the PLP, though. Corbyn, if he wins by a reduced margin, can legitimately suggest it would've been a stonking win but for the cut-off.
It doesn't matter. Either he wins, or he doesn't. The margin is immaterial. If he wins, he'll be challenged again. And again. And again.
At what point will those in Labour who wish to be elected to government get fed up with these games?
Infrastructure will be a massive job. The harsh reality for the right is that big infrastructure projects need state funding and drive to make them happen. The state can borrow the large amounts of cash far cheaper than private industry and can accommodate the prolonged payback period.
So what major projects would this new department need to go after? 1. Housing. Remove all the banked land from greedy housebuilders. Remove the disincentive to councils to allow development on brownfield. Get building on a large scale 2. Heathrow. Its in the wrong place. But there's no alternative, so get on with it already 3. High Speed Rail - we need massive capacity increases in the medium term, so get on with it already 4. Roads - a million and one schemes could be started tomorrow, from resurfacing to pinchpoints to bypasses to major new routes. Get on with it 5. Energy. Hinkley Point was a bad deal and has gone cold. Build our own. And readress the tarriffs making wind and tidal hard to do - we should be leading the world developing new energy generation 6. Fibre Broadband. Most people can't get access to it and its up to a private monopoly to provide it. Remove Openreach from the equation and build it ourselves
This is pre-Brexit thinking. There's going to be less economic activity, fewer people, less money. You just don't need as much infrastructure as you would have.
That said, how are people in Britain getting their internet of they don't have fibre? It's not still going over1890s-standard copper wire is it?
BT are cheapskates.... what do you think...
If you are lucky you have virgin as a second option (200mb) or so but I really want to move to somewhere where B4rn.org.uk provide the service...
I've got B4RN... 1 gigabit download and upload, 3ms ping, unlimited data all for £25 per month + VAT
Comments
Based on new Labour leadership rules, I currently expect reduced victory for Corbyn.
How about "you Labour"? You have a weird leadership problem
(edited to add, good afternoon, everyone)
Abellio (NS) run Scotrail, Greater Anglia, plus 50% of Merseyrail
So the majority of "privatised" rail operations are wholly or partially nationalised by foreign governments. Its absurd that we let the German government run our trains but ban our own government. Because governments are inefficient apparently.
Where now the Northern Powerhouse?
[But yes, I am the Prince Harry of the family
That is why laws like that are so silly.
Chief Sec "attends" cabinet, not technically part of it
I think that's an even better move than Osborne.
She'll unease you
All the better just to please you
She's precocious, and she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush
She got Greta Garbo's standoff sighs
She's got Nicky Morgan eyes
Still no expected opening date for the new Berlin Airport which was supposed to be opening in 2010:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Brandenburg_Airport
But until Greg Hands, the Chief Sec has been a full Cabinet member since the 1970s
It's the same for all of us. What was a theoretical possibility is now an accomplished fact.
Despite the fact that EU27 polls are showing a swing towards the EU, the UK has essentially parked its economic tanks on the EU's lawn. If we do very poorly then crisis averted. If we do well...it's a genuine issue for them in the medium term in terms of unity and cohesion. Hence the slightly schizophrenic mood music.
No, really...
With 2 new departments and only 1 being abolished, surely that limit has been exceeded...
And if I'm really going to indulge in fantasy, the plan could be to overpromote Rudd (frankly making the tea would be an overpromotion, but there you go) and give her the boot at the first policy slip up. Which won't be long. She has essentially been made Minister for getting immigration down.
NEW THREAD NEW THREAD
new thread
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/683224/END-OF-THE-EU-Germany-France-Austria-Hungary-Finland-Netherlands-Europe-Brexit